President Zuma’s new Cabinet

South African President Jacob Zuma has announced a major Cabinet reshuffle, appointing a host of new ministers and deputy ministers as part of a concerted effort to improve and accelerate service delivery in the country.

Announcing the changes in Pretoria on Sunday, Zuma said that, 17 months since his inauguration as President, the process of reconfiguring government and putting systems in place to change the way the country’s administration works had been completed.

During this time, he said, the government had studied the functioning of the current administration in order to ascertain what worked and what needed to be changed or strengthened.

“We have taken a long and hard look at some of the departments with a view to strengthening some ministries,” Zuma said. “We have noted that a few of them require the addition of deputy ministries to assist ministers in carrying out their responsibilities.”

Zuma expressed his gratitude to the outgoing members of Cabinet for their contribution to the government and the country.

“Some have served in government for many years, and we trust that they will still put their expertise at the disposal of the country. Some of the outgoing members are to be deployed in other tasks in government.

“We congratulate the incoming members of Cabinet as well as the deputy ministers and wish them well in their new responsibilities,” Zuma said.

The new ministers and deputy ministers were due to be sworn into office on Monday.